Adventures in gratitude and BrandyLand

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Monthly Archives: March 2009

Simplicity. Instead of a very old saying on my cell phone I typed in the word simplicity. Not everything in life is simple. This I get. But not everything has to be hard either. So I have five stories to write in one day sometimes. Take it one story at a time and get it done. Simplicity.

So I’m stuck in traffic and am five minutes late to work. Call my boss. Tell her so. Simplicity.

So I’m having a bad day. Get out the gratitude book and write down what’s gone right. Simplicity.

Simplicity is a beautiful word and not one that will apply in every situation, but it can certainly help in the trivial everyday stuff that seems to get in my way.

They say patience is a virtue. Today I’m not so sure. I think you’d have to be a saint to deal with the newsroom I’m sitting in. So we must all be saints!! We’re down one reporter and an editor. The reporter is on her third day out after getting that horrible flu that has been going around.

So, there’s extra pages, extra stories, extra stress. And there’s not enough caffeine and donuts to even make up for all this stress. I’ve never been this far behind on a Friday. I didn’t get my pages turned in until 10:30. My Saturday Package isn’t written. And on and on. Right now, at 3:08 p.m. I’m staring in the headlights of my last story I need to write, dreading it with all my might because I’m mentally drained.

The pages are back to proof and I hear gripes of this and that, whines and groans. Throw your hands up in the air and walk off. Just trust me on this one.

Today is my little bro’s birthday!! It seems only yesterday we were kids playing in the dirt with Matchbox cars making roads, highways, rivers, streams and kicking up the dust. We’d play for hours not noticing that we had played through lunch or played all day long until dark.

My brother and I at times fought like cats and dogs but we always stood by each other. We never would tattle on one another. Mum could never get out of us who did what because we didn’t want the other to get in trouble.

Miles have driven my brother and I apart physically but we’ll always have that bond. And those memories.

I was reading a book last night and it suggested that I get a journal and make it my gratitude journal. Me, being very diligent in journaling, jumped right up, found and empty one and then read what I was supposed to do next. It said write a master list. Ok….so I listed 10 things to put on my master gratitute list. I read the next sentence and it said you had to have 50 things on the master list. FIFTY!!

I wasn’t pleased by this as I didn’t think I could come up with 50 and get any sleep whatsoever. But it was easier than I thought. Much easier. I listed 50 + items in less than 10 minutes. I believe I’m almost up to 100. It wasn’t hard when you get in that mind set to figure out what you’re grateful for.

The book that I”m reading says if I do this every day I will soon will soon see a change in myself and that I will be sitting in gratitude more my pessimitude. Yes, I made the latter word up!